Obama said that on Syria the two "agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific events that we've seen over the last several weeks, and we pledged to work with other international actors, including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem."
Putin, seated next to Obama following their two-hour meeting, said: "From my perspective we've been able to find many commonalities" on Syria.
Neither leader mentioned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by name in their public remarks or in a joint statement issued after their meeting, thus avoiding any express reference to past U.S. demands that Assad step down.
The joint statement said: "We are united in the belief that the Syrian people should have the opportunity to independently and democratically choose their own future."
Beyond Syria, Obama and Putin discussed diplomatic efforts to head off a confrontation with Iran. Obama said he emphasized a common approach to Iran, asserting there was "still time and space to resolve diplomatically" concerns about nuclear weapons.
The United States has sought Russia's help to lend legitimacy to the argument that Iran faces broad international condemnation. Iran usually paints the dispute over its nuclear program as a confrontation with the United States and its ally Israel.
The Obama-Putin meeting was held as Moscow played host to an international negotiating session with Iran. Russia has gone along with U.N. Security Council efforts to tighten some penalties against Iran because of questions about its nuclear weapons ambitions, but has blocked the harshest punishments.
The meeting was one of two major foreign policy challenges preoccupying Obama during his two days at the Group of 20 economic meeting. Much of the rest of the summit was to be devoted to the European fiscal crisis and the fate of Greece as a part of the euro zone. A pro-euro candidate is trying to form a Greek coalition government following elections Sunday, but the anti-austerity second-place party has refused.
